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03-30-2010, 10:15 AM | #1 |
Devil Viper
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: MD
Posts: 1,529
|
Hey gang, please take the time to read through my post as this is something that I, personally, feel is kinda important and certainly attainable for a group as large as the G.I.Joe fanbase, and specifically, the Hisstank community.
Over on the Shout! Factory Community message boards, there has been some discussion ongoing about trying to get Closed Captioning for the hearing-impaired available on the upcoming remastered release of the 1987 animated film, "G.I.JOE: The Movie". In particular, there is at least one die-hard G.I.Joe who wishes to be able to enjoy the animated series once again, but his deafness means he can only enjoy the animation/art work, but cannot follow the dialogue or story because of his/her disability. This one member has brought it to our attention that there is a small, yet significant portion of our fanbase who is unable to enjoy the series the same way or to the same capacity that many of us take for granted. Although this member has been lobbying quite fervently in favor of getting closed captioning included on the release of the movie, and has lamented over the fact that such captioning failed to be included with the release of the original series in late 2009, executive producer Brian Ward (who is an outstanding professional and an impressive young man, in his own right) has explained that it is not always possible to provide such services due to budget constraints (you can read Brian's post on the community message board below where he explains his desire to meet this request for the hearing-impaired community, but his constraints to being able to do so). Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Ward
Your question is valid and, I must admit, I've avoided answering it, only because I've yet to find a concrete answer and didn't want to screw you around. Still, I read your last statement and I think it's high time I make a couple of things clear for everyone. First and foremost, it should be addressed that the "fat cats" aren't really making decisions like that for those reasons. Yes, we absolutely need to be profitable, in order to remain in business. It's a simply law of economics. But we're not keeping our titles from being captioned BECAUSE we don't want to pay for it.
1.) Captions for a 98-episode series like Transformers (at 22 minutes each) cost roughly $24,500. Add to that the cost of another 95 episodes of G.I. Joe and you have $48,250. Give or take. 2. ) Captions that air with the series are often "donated" by a sponsor. It still costs money to have them made, but the bill is offset by the network's ad time. So when you read, "Captions Sponsored In Part by Midas," etc., it means that the advertising money Midas et al paid went toward paying for captions. We don't have advertising revenue. And, surprisingly, Midas et al aren't as interested in "donating" captions, if their commercials aren't going to be seen with the series. We have, however, gone looking for organizations willing to sponsor captioning and even audio descriptions for the blind, but--believe it or not-- none who are able/willing have come to our aid. There are grants available, but these are for use in public television. Please note: no one was ever donating their time and man hours to caption television series for free. It still costs to have a non-profit organization, if one exists, caption your titles. "Non-profit" simply means they're not profiting. Doesn't mean they're not paying their people. And that requires money from the studio/network/label. 3.) One might ask, "why can't you take the captions used for television and put them on the DVDs?" Good question. Here's the answer. They're incompatible. Captions run on television work differently than captions that are embedded on a DVD. The cost will come down slightly, if we have those original captions to reformat, but not terribly. However, more often than not, you can throw that option out the window, because most of the titles we've licensed haven't included original television captions from the studios. So we have to start from scratch, anyway. 4.) Blu-rays. Ah, Blu-rays. Captions don't work with Blu-ray, particularly when run through an HDMI cable. Blu-rays have to include subtitles, which are even more expensive to create. Blu-rays also present a unique problem. A high-def image, mastered at 24 frames per second, runs with different timing than a standard-definition image, mastered at 30 frames per second. The captions won't line up properly. Nor will they line up on the image the same way between a 16:9 and a 4:3 image. So now, double the initial cost, because you have to create one file for the HD (16:9) and another for the SD (4:3). So, when all's said and done, a movie like G.I. Joe might have as many as two caption files and one subtitle file. Even at only roughly 93-minutes, this is incredibly expensive. Shout! Factory is a small, independently-owned company that can't afford to caption everything we release. Please, allow me to reiterate, because I want to make it clear that I'm not exaggerating when I say, "we CAN'T afford" it. It's not a matter of, "gosh, we can't spend that and make as much money for our 'fat cat' hands to hold." It's that our budgets on each title LITERALLY don't have enough to pay for this AND create the bonus material or re-mastered episodes/movies for which Shout! Factory has become well known and even celebrated. These are the reasons we're still in business, while other independent labels are not. And, sadly, the hard of hearing, as well as the blind have been casualties in that struggle with finding the available money necessary to make these titles more accessible. Now, that being said, I'm TRYING to make sure these are captioned/subtitled. But because my budget is already so low and I do already have approved bonus materials in the can, not to mention the fact that the episodes that came before the movie are not captioned, it is difficult to have three-four caption/subtitle files created. I'm looking for a way. If you wanna donate somewhere around $3,000 for the cause, you let me know. Because I'll happily throw your name up there as "Captions Donated by YOUR NAME HERE." Updates to come, gang. Brian I propose the group here take action and begin raising the necessary funds to ensure Brian's project can come in on budget AND make a product that is more widely accessible to those with impairments. Perhaps a moderator--someone whom the board equally trusts--can set up an account that members of the board can contribute toward and the funds can be sent to Brian. If other 'tank members feel as confident and strongly about this as I do, then I think we can get into a more serious discussion of the logistics. But I think $3,000 is easily doable for this bunch here. Besides... how cool would it be when you pop in your Blu Ray disc and see: "Closed Captioning made possible by the members at HissTank.com."??? |
03-30-2010, 10:22 AM | #2 |
Master of Disguise
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Sarasota, FL
Posts: 4,757
|
Well... I'd donate my time to run through and type out all the captions in a video if that would help.. LOL
__________________
A Gem of That Size Answers ALL my questions. Zartanman's Homemade Joes https://www.facebook.com/zartanman Zartanman's Customs on HissTANK http://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-jo...ml#post1084106 |
03-30-2010, 10:40 AM | #3 |
Sith Assassin Droid
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Roanoke, Virginia
Posts: 9,173
|
How many members does the 'Tank have? I mean, raising up 3 grand should be easy i would think, considering the coin alot of us drop on figures and whatnot. Then again, maybe not. I wonder what the timeline for such donations would be?
I think more info would be needed before rallying to the cause, but....As someone with hearing damage who needs to rely on captions/subtitles alot, i would be down with this. |
03-30-2010, 10:44 AM | #4 |
Devil Viper
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: MD
Posts: 1,529
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The last average price of a 25th/ME/ROC figure was around $7.88. Everyone contributing $5 would be contributing less than the cost of a figure. At $5/donation, it would require only 600 different 'tank members make a contribution... and I imagine some members might be willing to contribute more than just $5. I, alone, would be willing to contribute at least $10 if it meant that it would get the captioning on there. But if this item got front-paged and some Moderator backing behind it, we could probably hit the $3000 in less than a week. IMO...
I've reached out to Brian to see if there is anything we can do to help. |
03-30-2010, 10:53 AM | #5 |
Sith Assassin Droid
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Roanoke, Virginia
Posts: 9,173
|
yeah, his numbers for the transformers captioning (single cap track) boil down to about 250 per 22min ep, so captioning the movie with a single track would run about 750-1000, and he mentions that a bluray takes about 3 tracks or there abouts, so his $3000 estimate seems plausible/accurate. if so, then this could very well be doable with concentrated board effort. Some guys on here are talented enough with customs that a single custom, ebayed, could bring as much as 50-60 for the cause. Sadly, i don't have that skill myself, but i would probably pledge $20 to the cause, if i luck in to some overtime, maybe more. If the numbers are accurate, and the timeline isn't drastically short, this should be doable if the Tank collectively wants it done.
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03-31-2010, 02:46 AM | #6 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Central Texas
Posts: 447
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opensubtitles.org has at least 4 set of english subs for the '87 animated movie. I downloaded one of these files and can confirm that it contains the complete, unedited version of the movie's dialgoue (no sound effects) and is fully time coded.
With a few tweaks, I'm sure Shout! could include subs on their DVD/Blu-Ray releases. Subtitles: G.I. Joe: The Movie subtitles I downloaded the english subs that is marked "trusted", in case anyone wants to verify for themselves. Last edited by Viper Commando; 03-31-2010 at 02:57 AM.. |
04-20-2010, 03:01 PM | #7 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Central Texas
Posts: 447
|
Bad news, neither the upcoming blu-ray or dvd release of the '87 animated movie will have subtitles. Brian Ward recently posted the following on the Shout! Community board:
Quote:
The Blu-ray release will be a BD/DVD combo. The BD will carry both widescreen and fullframe versions of the movie. The DVD will only have the original fullframe.
Sadly, neither is captioned or subtitled. Brian |
04-20-2010, 03:09 PM | #8 |
Mad Scientist at Large
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 14,793
|
Really? How hard can it be to add captioning if friggin' anime fans do it in their basements over the weekend to the latest japanese Naruto episode?
With all the money they spend on remastering the video it seems pretty lame they didn't even bother with closed captioning. |
04-21-2010, 04:08 PM | #9 |
Sith Assassin Droid
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Roanoke, Virginia
Posts: 9,173
|
kind of sad really, especially for me. I will still buy the thing, but i have hearing loss and it's hard to enjoy a show/movie without captions or subtitles.
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04-21-2010, 04:52 PM | #10 |
Hisstank.Com General
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 11,379
|
Quote:
Really? How hard can it be to add captioning if friggin' anime fans do it in their basements over the weekend to the latest japanese Naruto episode?
With all the money they spend on remastering the video it seems pretty lame they didn't even bother with closed captioning. |
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